Dog breath

[tracymetcalfe]

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Hi everyone,

I am a newbie on this site, although I wish I had discovered it years ago! We have two dogs, a Collie called Ollie and a Jack Russell called Gwen. Gwen has really bad breath! We had her teeth cleaned by the vet back in April and since then she has been off her food (not totally, but she used to wolf down her food and now she needs encouragement to eat her food), she makes a real mess when eating when before she was a really tidy and clean eater and her breath smells worse than before! We have not changed their food (they are both on Iams for sterilised dogs). She has been put onto Apaquel for her allergies as she was on steriods for four years but her hair started to fall out. Any advice would be fab as she is such a lovely dog - apart from the dog-breath!

 

[eingana]

Hi Tracy, and welcome to DogForum

I'm afraid I'd have Gwen back down to the vets to discuss this with them. If she had her teeth cleaned and didn't have extractions which have left holes which can fill up with food and sore areas which can make them eat strangely then I'd want to know why this is happening now.

It's possible that she had tartar before and therefore her gumline was sore after the operation, but that should be well passed by now. The vet that did the operation should be able to explain why this is happening and how her eating has been so affected by this, and if they can't explain it then they can examine Gwen and start working out what is going on.

There's a chance that the dental has irritated a nerve, or even that Gwen now has a sore mouth because a tooth has been damaged by the dental, and if the vet needs to have a look to rule that out then it's good practice to do that. If her mouth is now sore then that would account for both why she doesn't want to eat and why she's eating messily.

I love her pic BTW- she looks like the sort of dog that pays full attention to absolutely EVERYTHING that is happening